Released
by Liberated Dragon
Summary: Thor ponders how he truly released Loki.


Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.

Released

Thor watched his father's breaths and he lay in his golden bed. He did not know when his father would wake, being that the Odin sleep had be magically induced by another.

More specifically, induced by his once more, not-dead brother. The brother who had been sitting on the throne in the guise of Thor's father for who knew how long.

Thor walked down to the old, damp dungeon where the guards had found their king. Thor stared at the bed that Odin had been imprisoned on, and was bemused to find that it was not one of the grimy, uncomfortable cots usually assigned to a dungeon. It was a magnificent bed, of royal golds and reds, obviously meant for comfort. Maybe, even Loki felt that a king, even one he claimed to hate so, deserved the proper amenities.

Thor stood in the dungeon a while, his eyes darting around the stony walls and the water covered floors. Most of the water had been drained away. The dungeon had nearly flooded. If not for the warning from Loki's benefactors, Odin would not have survived the oncoming flood.

Thor walked up the stairs from the dungeon, his eyes following the water mark along the stone wall. He wondered across the palace to the location where this fiasco had started. He entered the new dungeons, where he had foolishly released his brother.

No, not his brother! Thor had told Loki that he no longer believed his beloved brother existed within Loki's wiry frame.

He shouldn't have told him that!

Thor looked over to the newest damage in the dungeon. A completely different cell, not nearly as nicely furnished as Loki's had been. The corner pillar had been pushed out of alignment destroying the energy barrier and freeing its occupants. They were still uncertain who the escapees had been.

All he knew is they had come for his brother.

He splashed through the remaining water here as well. A large aqueduct had been destroyed. Water had been streaming through the palace, following gravity and seemingly the command of those who had broken from the prison.

He followed the trail of water back to his father's, or his, throne room. He stared at the rupture in the wall behind the throne. The aqueduct in the destroyed wall had been hastily patched to hold the water at bay.

He walked to the wall, his hand tracing the jagged edge of the carbon scored hole. He could feel the last lingering traces of lightening in the damaged masonry.

Thor gripped Mjolnir tighter! Did Loki learn to harness lightening? Quite a frightening thought!

But then, it was just as much Thor's fault. Thor had said he wasn't releasing his brother. He'd released Loki!

He walked around the throne, as one would circle a venomous serpent. He had said he didn't want it. But, was that the All-Father he had said that to, or Loki?

The brother he had said was dead!

He was the fool Loki always said he was!

He walked the halls to the main gate of the palace. It lay charred and broken. The walls of the large entryway were covered in water-marked stains, and higher up, fire scorched marks.

With his words, had Thor slammed the doors shut on any hope of getting his brother back? Or could those doors be laid low like the great gates in front of him.

Thor was a fool!

The guards were still uncertain what had happened. They said everything had seemed confusing… gray…misty.

They admitted that their main focus was stopping Loki. They hadn't really paid attention to the others. The others who had somehow smashed through the great gate in some massive flying vehicle that none of the guards could actually make out.

Thor wished his mother was here. Frigga would have known what spell could make a whole palace not "see". Even as the palace was thrown into chaos with water, fire, and lightening.

But then, chaos always followed Loki! Even as children, when his harmless pranks grew too big for him to stop. To even now, when he had full control of his magic.

Loki was Loki!

Thor closed his eyes in grieving pain. He had done this!

After all Loki's attempts to break away and be what he always wanted to be, Thor had ripped down the final wall. And Loki had happily skipped down the hall, at Thor's side, like he had gotten his fondest wish in all the nine realms.

And hadn't he?

Thor hadn't needed Loki, the law-abiding, dead Asgardian Prince.

He had needed Loki the Trickster.

And as Thor stood in his quiet anguish, in front of the obliterated wall, he knew!

He had released Loki!


End file.
